Relevant subject matter is disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application entitled xe2x80x9cELECTRICAL CONNECTOR WITH SHOCK SUPPORTxe2x80x9d, which is assigned to the same assignee with this application.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an edge card connector with a power module for delivering power from a power supply to an electronic card thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Edge card connectors, such as Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) connectors are widely used in the computer industry ranging from servers to workstations, personal computers (PCs), laptop PCs and mobile devices. PCI connectors establish a high-performance I/O interconnection between a Central processing unit (CPU) and its peripherals to transfer data therebetween.
PCI Express is a newly developed serial I/O technology compatible with the current PCI software environment that offers low-cost, scalable performance for the next generation of computing and communications platforms. In recent days, PCI Express connectors according to the PCI Express standard are designed to achieve a perfectly high-performance interconnection between two electronic devices, such as a mother printed circuit board and a graphics card.
A conventional PCI Express connector comprises an elongated dielectric housing defining a card slot for receiving a graphics card therein. However, due to external forces from shock, the connector, located on a mother printed circuit board, does not have sidewalls strong enough to support the inserted graphics card. U.S. Pat. No. 6,254,435, issued to Cheong et al., discloses an edge card connector comprising a dielectric housing having a card slot along a longitudinal direction thereof and a pair of upright supports at opposite ends of the slot to support an inserted card.
On the other hand, the PCI Express connector is desired to have power contacts for delivering power to some cards such as graphics cards. The power contacts have solder tails electrically connecting to the mother printed circuit board to deliver power from the mother printed circuit board to the graphics card. However, the mother printed circuit board would require a change to have more layers for electrically connecting with the solder tails of the power contacts, thereby increasing the manufacturing cost.
To address the problem of adding the layers to the mother printed circuit board, a cable solution is used to deliver power to the graphics card. Conventionally, a graphics card is equipped with a power connector to engage with a cable end connector which is connected to a power supply. After the graphics card is received in the card slot of the connector, the cable end connector then engages with the power connector on the graphics card. However, when the graphics card is required to changeover, the cable end connector must unplug from an old graphics card and then plug into a new graphic card prior to the insertion of the new card into the card slot of the connector. Accordingly, the cable solution of this type adds complexity for users to changeover the graphics cards.
Hence, an edge card connector having a power module is required to solve above-mentioned problems.
Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide an edge card connector having the function of power transmission and shock support.
A second object of the present invention is to provide an edge card connector having a power module with power contacts for electrically connecting to a cable end connector.
In order to achieve the objects set forth, an electrical connector in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention comprises an elongate dielectric housing including a base and a tower at one end of the base, a plurality of first contacts retained in the base and a second contact retained in the tower. The base defines a slot extending into the tower along a longitudinal direction thereof. The tower defines a receiving cavity therein. The first contact comprises a contact portion extending into the slot for engaging with an electronic card. The second contact comprises a first engaging portion extending into the slot for engaging with the electronic card, and a second engaging portion received in the receiving cavity for electrically connecting to a complementary component.
An electrical connector in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention comprises an elongate dielectric housing defining a first slot along a longitudinal direction thereof, a plurality of first contacts retained in the housing, and a contact module secured to the housing. The first contact includes a contact portion extending into the first slot for engaging with an electronic card. The contact module comprises a dielectric body and a second contact retained in the dielectric body. The dielectric body defines a second slot having a width substantially the same as that of the first slot. The second contact includes a first engaging portion extending into the second slot for engaging with the electronic card and a second engaging portion for electrically connecting to a complementary component.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.